Home OwnershipIn the UK approximately 70% of these properties are partly owned with a mortgage lender or owned outright. The rest are owned by social landlords such as Housing Associations.

Ownership BreakdownOf the 70% of homes owned privately approximately 18.2mn, it is estimated that a third of these are owned outright, without a mortgage. That means approximately six million homes are owned outright.Number of Mortgaged PropertiesOut of the 26 million homes in the UK, meaning less than 50% are mortgaged, leaving approximately 12 million properties part owned and part mortgaged.

Summary of the Property Markets in the UKApart from the market of home ownership, there are also lots of other markets that are worth monitoring in the UK including:-

Buying and Selling MarketApproximately 1.2-1.5 million homes are bought and sold every year in the UK. Except in 2008 when due to the credit crunch, sales fell to an all time low of around 800-900,000 transactions.

Residential AuctionsApproximately 10% of homes are sold through auction houses during the year. In normal years that's around 100,000 properties.

Private Sales MarketsThis is where a seller sells without using an agent or an auction house. Approximately 7% of homes are sold via this method, 84,000.

Part ExchangeThis is where a company or builder buys a property from a seller, while selling them another property. Prevalent in the new build and retirement market.

Renting and Letting MarketRarely reported by the media, this is an increasingly important market, with as many people renting during the year as buying/selling. There are approximately 1.5 to 2 million properties rented privately every year. ie not through a Housing Association owned property.

Land MarketMost of the land in the UK is not built on at all. There are lots of different types of land, land sold for development with planning permission; land sold for diary or arable farming and woodland.

Commercial PropertyThis is a massive sector within the UK and breaks down into large regeneration projects that involve social and private housing; shopping malls; office and warehouse space; new transport links right through to small commercial properties such as a small shop or office on a high street.

Overseas Property MarketThis is typically broken down by country, but can also be broken down into property types as below and looked at as properties for international purchases and ones for local people.

Property Market in DetailAs well as lots of different markets, each market breaks down further into smaller markets such as:-

New Build MarketNew homes built by developers which breaks down to social new builds and privately developed ones. Normally we build just over 200,000 of these a year.

Self Build Market This is a fascinating market where over 15,000 people either build or employ someone else to build them their own home.

Second Hand HomesThese are homes that have already been lived in and owned. Second hand homes break down into lots of markets of their own including:

Property TypesFlats, houses, maisonettes, bungalows all of which could have been built in different decades such as 1930s homes; Edwardian; Victorian; Georgian; Listed Homes.

Property SizesTypically measured in square metres in other countries, but in the UK often broken donw by one, two, three, four; five bed plus homes.

Within this market place there are many other statistics that are important to monitor, such as the financials including:-

Average mortgage lending versus average wageThis gives an idea of the 'affordibility' of homes in the UK versus earnings.

Average amount borrowed to purchase a home/deposit paidThis gives an idea of whether people are taking on more debt to buy a home

What method people choose to pay off their mortgageFor example interest owner versus repayment.

Average number of people behind on their mortgage payments, or being repossessedThis gives an idea of homes likely to come onto the market and those struggling, typically in poor economic conditions, such as the 'credit crunch' or 'downturn' of 2008. Typically these figures are very low at less than 1% of the number of people who actually own a home with a lender.

Tracking Mortgage Rates OfferedThis information gives an idea of what is likely to happen in the market place in the future. Normally it is worth watching what happens with fixed, variable, tracker and discount rates.